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Book Review: Skin and Bones by Sherry Shahan

This story is about teenagers in an eating disorder unit of a hospital. It opens with Jack, AKA Bones, settling into his room on the unit, he is an anorexic starting a 6 week program. His room mate is another guy called Lard, an over eater who wants to be a chef. Then there is Alice, a ballerina who just wont eat even though she has been in and out of hospitals with serious medical problems relating to her anorexia. Bones, Lard and Alice form an unlikely friendship. Bones falls for Alice and while she leads him on a merry dance of her own there is a lot of pain in their relationship.

Each learns to deal with their issues and why they have eating disorders. Family therapy sessions reveal more than what should be revealed. Some parents don’t want to accept why their child has issues with food and that they may be the reason behind it.

This book tackle serious eating issues and the reasons behind them. I have never read a book about this condition before and did enjoy it. It brought to light why some people become anorexic, bulimic or overeaters and how they feel about food and themselves. There is love and redemption to a certain degree in this book and while it does highlight serious health issues it doesn’t do it in a heavy handed hand, or for that matter too lightly. I was drawn into this book and finished it in one day. It was well written with characters you wanted to feel for.